Chronicle Editor
Saif al-Islam, the son of slain dictator Muammar Gaddafi wants to “restore the lost unity” of Libya after a decade of chaos and does not exclude standing for the presidency.
He spoke in a rare interview, given to the New York Times at an opulent two-storey villa inside a gated compound at Zintan in the west of the North African country.
For years, mystery had surrounded the precise whereabouts of a man wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The 49-year-old, who before 2011 had been seen as his father’s presumed successor, said politicians in the decade since have brought Libyans “nothing but misery”.
“It is time for a return to the past. The country — it’s on its knees… There’s no money, no security. There’s no life here,” Saif al-Islam said in his first appearance in years.
After four decades in power, Muammar Gaddafi and his relatives were the target of a popular uprising in 2011.
Three of the dictator’s seven sons were killed, but the fate of Saif al-Islam, whose name means “sword of Islam” was unknown.
He was captured by a Libyan militia in November 2011, days after his father was killed.
Four years later, a Tripoli court sentenced him in absentia to death for crimes committed during the revolt.
The ICC has repeatedly asked for him to be handed over for trial.
Until the interview, Saif al-Islam had not been seen or heard from since June 2014, when he appeared via video link from Zintan during his trial by the Tripoli court.
Saif al-Islam said in the interview that he was a free man organising a political return, and that his former captors “are now my friends”.
He told the paper the militiamen eventually realised he could be a powerful ally.-AFP.
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